A sample of Alaska Airlines’ new livery for its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
Source: Alaska Airlines:
Alaska Airlines is starting flights from Seattle to London and Reykjavik, Iceland, next May, adding to its global expansion following its acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines last year.
Alaska plans to fly daily between Seattle and London’s Heathrow Airport on its Boeing
787-9 Dreamliners, in a bet on both business and leisure travel demand. Seattle-Reykjavik will be served by a 737 Max 8 as a spring and summer seasonal service, for the roughly seven-hour flight.
The carrier in June announced it plans to start nonstops between Seattle and Rome next year. A few weeks later, rival Delta Air Lines, said it, too, plans to fly between Seattle and Rome, as well as Barcelona, Spain. International travel, especially for premium seats, has held up better than U.S. domestic demand, where the market is oversupplied.
Alaska is also planning to start flights between Seattle and Seoul, South Korea, in September. Its daily service to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport began in May.
The carrier plans to have at least 12 intercontinental nonstops from its home hub of Seattle.
The airline also unveiled a new livery for its Boeing Dreamliners. New 787-9s coming off the factory lines will get the fresh paint scheme, which the airline says was inspired by the northern lights.
When it acquired Hawaiian, which already had wide-body planes in its fleet for long-haul flights over the Pacific, Alaska said it would keep the two brands, which will remain on many aircraft.
“They will remain unchanged as essential elements of our brands’ legacies and history,” Alaska said Tuesday.
